


Count the Stars Inside Your Mind

by elsalapizza (lamerezouille)



Series: SPN Fluff Bingo [6]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mistaken for Being in a Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 10:44:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16852567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lamerezouille/pseuds/elsalapizza
Summary: Castiel is helped by a nice stranger while shopping for Christmas decorations. The only question is why would everyone think that they're a couple, when they've only just met.





	Count the Stars Inside Your Mind

**Author's Note:**

> Written for #spnadventcalendar2018 on tumblr. Day 4 prompt: "Putting up Christmas decorations"  
> Square #24 fill on my SPN fluff bingo card "Mistaken for a couple"  
> Title from the Regina Spektor song "The Light"

A plastic reindeer or wicker elves? Castiel did not like plastic much, but the wicker elves looked like they would stand out a bit too much in his quiet neighborhood. Also truth be told, their unblinking, empty stare were definitely making him a bit uneasy.

"Don't take any of those, man, your neighbors would hate you," someone said from immediately next to him, startling Castiel. "What you want is tasteful lights, not scary nightmare creatures!"

Castiel didn't know him, but this would be Claire's first ever Christmas at his house, and Castiel wanted it to be as comfortable for her as it could be. This man seemed to know more about Christmas decorations than Castiel, so he decided to engage him.

"I appreciate your input, but I am unsure about wasting electricity in this period of climate crisis. Do you know of any decoration that would achieve the same aesthetic without wasting the earth's resources?"

The stranger seemed taken aback at first, and Castiel tried not to feel too self-conscious about his speech pattern. He knew it threw a lot of people off. Most of these people usually did not wait much time before having to be somewhere else.

Surprisingly though, the man seemed more scandalized by Castiel’s ignorance about Christmas decorations than his awkward social skills. The man started going on and on about LED lights and low-consuming electrical devices and Castiel was not sure everything he was saying applied to the specific context of Christmas decorations, but the stranger was funny and charismatic and his striking green eyes had Castiel entranced.

They had been talking--or at least the stranger had been talking, Castiel mostly nodding and humming in understanding--for close to fifteen minutes when a store clerk interrupted them with a very friendly, “Hello! I’ve noticed you guys have been looking at our Christmas decorations! Is there anything I can do to help you embellish your home for the holidays?”

“Oh, we’re not...” the man answered almost immediately, and Castiel did not understand right away what the stranger was so quick to deny, but then it dawned on him that the employee had said “your home”, as if Castiel and this man were living together, and perhaps as more than just roommates.

A picture of this exact scenario came to Castiel’s mind at this point, and he was mildly taken aback at how oddly comforting what Castiel’s brain conjured was. Castiel could feel heat blooming on his face, and a glance at the stranger revealed that a blush was also appearing on his cheeks.

The clerk realized her error pretty quickly though. It was at this point her turn to turn red, and she did not lose time before making a hasty exit.

There was an awkward silence then as Castiel tried to keep his eyes on the fairy lights the man had recommended.

“So, um. I’m gonna get back to my shopping, then. Have a nice day, man!”

“Thank you,” Castiel answered, meaning to thank him more than just for politeness’s sake, but not knowing how to express it.

“By the way,” the man added, as if it was nothing but an afterthought, “I’m Dean.”

Castiel had only the time to say the first syllable of his name before Dean had left towards the next aisle.

Castiel shook himself from the daze this meeting with Dean had left him in. It was difficult for him to rationalize it, so Castiel decided to ignore it for now. He selected some of the decorations Dean had recommended, plus a few small ones he would hang inside Claire’s room in the hope of making it as warm and welcoming for her as possible.

It took him a bit more than half an hour to do the rest of his shopping (he had hesitated a lot on the kind of cereals Claire would like the most, and ended up taking five different boxes). When he arrived at the checkout, he found himself in line right behind Dean.

What was he supposed to do? Should he say something? Dean’s back was to him, if Castiel stayed quiet, Dean would perhaps not notice him at all. This hypothesis, for a reason Castiel could not pinpoint, seemed suddenly horrendous.

“Hello, Dean,” Castiel heard himself say with no conscious decision on his part. It sounded stupid and did not really make sense, and how would Dean even react? He felt himself starting to sweat, but didn’t have the time to go into a full panic attack, because suddenly Dean was face to him again, and everything felt better.

“Heya, Cas! Long time, no see! I see you made all the right choices,” he said, nodding towards Castiel’s full cart.

“Yes, your advice have been very helpful.” Castiel was almost proud of how normal he sounded, when he could hear his heart thudding against his ribcage as though he had just run a sprint.

“Aw, Cas, you’re gonna make me blush!” Dean answered with a cheeky grin, and suddenly his hand was on Cas’s forearm.

How Dean could act so casual and how Castiel could not be bothered by it was amazing. Two people had the time to pay for their groceries whilst Dean and Cas were still talking, and Castiel felt it had been years since he’d smiled so much.

Then it was the turn for Dean’s groceries to get scanned and paid for, except that instead of asking Dean what was his preferred method of payment, the cashier grabbed the first item of Castiel’s groceries without batting an eyelid.

“Excuse-me, Miss. I...” Castiel paused. This had never happened to him before. He had no idea how to respond to such a situation. He finally settled on, “Those are my groceries.”

He felt a bit foolish, because it was obvious that these were his groceries. He knew that and Dean knew that, and this was her job so why didn’t the cashier know that?

The cashier froze at once. She looked up through her bangs from Castiel’s soy milk yoghurts to Castiel and to Dean, and to the yoghurts again. “Oh,” she said, very laconically. She then put the yoghurts back down and went on, her face now as red as a tomato, “I thought that you two were...I mean...You looked so...aren’t you?”

There was nothing to answer to this, so Castiel said nothing, while trying not to look in Dean’s direction. That was now two different employees in this store who thought they were a couple, and Castiel had to focus really hard not to let the same domestic pictures as earlier invade his mind.

The cashier apologized promptly and as she fought a little bit with her machine to un-scan Castiel’s items, Castiel dared glancing in Dean’s direction, and was surprised to find Dean also looking in his direction. They shared a brief smile and Castiel could feel once more his heart flutter.

Nothing more happened though. Dean finished paying for his groceries and waved Castiel goodbye from afar just as the cashier claimed Castiel’s attention with more apologies.

As he drove home, put his groceries away and assembled a light lunch, Castiel kept thinking back about Dean, and Dean’s eyes, and his smile. Castiel had only met him only a few hours ago, but the knowledge that he would probably never see Dean again felt like a huge chasm inside of his chest. It would need to go away though, and soon. Claire would be here soon, and after what had happened to her parents, she needed all of Castiel’s attention and support. A silly little crush—and by now Castiel could admit what it was to himself—should not take precedence over Claire’s well-being.

And Claire’s well-being started with putting up nice Christmas decorations. Castiel recalled how Jimmy and Amelia always had meticulous yet joyful decorations in front of their home, and how much cheer it brought to the whole family, but also to Claire in particular. He was not deluded enough to think that he could achieve the same level of quality, but he hoped that with the good advice Dean gave him, it would not look as pathetic as he had originally feared.

Castiel berated himself for thinking about Dean once again, and got to work. He took out his ladder and started nailing the first fairy lights above his porch.

It did not take him long to realize that he was definitely not good at this though. The effect achieved on the package’s non-contractual photo was not achieved at all. The general effect couldn’t be qualified as anything other than wonky.

Castiel was trying desperately to adjust that first decoration—and really, why on earth did he think he would be able to put up _a half dozen_ more? Well, he knew why, but he’d decided not to think about Dean—when he heard a loud growl coming from the street behind him. Thinking for a wild minute that some dangerous wildcat had escaped from the nearby zoo, Castiel turned quickly, brandishing the only thing available at that moment in time.

"Woah, Cas! Keep it cool. Put the wreath down, you could hurt someone," Dean said as he got out of a humongous black car, his cheeky grin--as attractive as it was aggravating--firmly in place.

Castiel spared a dismayed glance for the wreath he was indeed gripping as a very ineffective weapon. He went to greet Dean, bemused but not unhappy to see him appear once more out of nowhere, even though he seemed to each time demonstrate Castiel's ineptitude as far as Christmas decorations were concerned.

"Hi! I'm not a stalker, I promise," Dean said, the words tripping out of his mouth. "I just--I was just driving by, I mean, I was going home after lunch, and this street happens to be on the way, and I saw you with your decorations, and I figured you might need some help? I mean, I'm partly responsible for making you buy half of the store's decoration aisle so I guessed it was the least I could do to offer a hand..."

Dean trailed off, and Castiel couldn't help the immediate thought that he was very cute. It was a bit disturbing, because Castiel thought he had been passed the age of finding anyone cute, let alone a leather-wearing monster-driving grown-up man, but Castiel decided he had no other choice but to roll with it.

"I would definitely not refuse any help I can get. I have come to realize that I am really bad at this."

"Don't beat yourself up, Cas! I'm sure you're not that bad," Dean answered reassuringly, though he certainly had no idea how long Castiel had been at it, with only one set of fairy lights in place, and very poorly so.

They started working together, and once Dean had taken the reins and Castiel's role had reduced to following Dean's well-thought-out instructions, things went seamlessly. So seamlessly in fact, that Castiel didn't feel like he was carrying out a chore.

Talking to Dean, listening to Dean's jokes, and generally being in Dean's vicinity felt so much easier than every social interaction Castiel had ever had before. Castiel felt so good indeed that he was trying to think of a way he could either make Dean stay for a snack afterwards.

Castiel was startled out of his thoughts by a very strident voice he only knew too well.

"Hello Castiel! I love your Christmas decorations!" Becky, Castiel's nosy neighbor called from her porch, loud enough for the whole street to hear. "And I also love your new boyfriend! What's his name?"

Castiel had never felt his face heat up so quickly. Having a couple of store employees mistaking them for a couple in private conversations was one thing. Having Becky Rosen scream to the whole neighborhood about Castiel's imagined sex life was another one entirely. He knew perfectly well that even though he protested this statement until he was blue in the face, Becky's statement had been just enough for the rumor mill to have months of fodder.

"Ah. No, we're not..." Dean began, not knowing how pointless reasoning with her could be.

"Have a nice day, Becky," Castiel cut him off, addressing Becky with a glare he knew was fearsome.

It seemed to work as Becky went to grab her mail in record time, leaving Castiel and Dean alone with an awkward silence.

“I apologize,” Castiel said. “My neighbor, Becky, she can be...a lot. I can assure you it is better for everyone not to engage her in any type of conversation.”

“No, it's not...” Dean answered with a faraway look in his eyes. “I just...” Dean took in a deep breath and Castiel could feel his heart progressively flying towards his throat.

This was not good. Dean was nothing but a friendly stranger, and he had not asked to be mistaken for Castiel's partner three times in the same day. This was the moment when he would take his leave and ask Castiel not to try to contact him. Castiel could feel something inside him break, and he tried to tell himself it was because he would have to change supermarket, but he knew he was only lying to himself.

“I thought,” Dean began again. “Maybe, after everyone thinking we're together...it would be a shame to disappoint them all. So, if you wanted to, we could try going on a date?”

Castiel had to make a double-take, because he was sure, for a moment, that this had been conjured by his wishful thinking and that there was no way Dean would want to ask him on a date.

It was Dean's sudden fidgety behavior that convinced Castiel that this was not an elaborate hallucination.

“I would love to go on a date with you, Dean,” Castiel hurried on saying, half-afraid Dean would retract his offer.

Dean’s answering smile was so bright that, for a nanosecond, Castiel was sure that the Christmas lights so expertly hung on his porch had just been turned on.

~

The strangest thing, or maybe most unexpected, that ended up in the crazy story of how Castiel and Dean got together though, was on the night on that very first date, when Claire was the one who opened the door to Dean’s ringing.

Castiel had been very discreet about it with her and had chosen not to tell her that this evening out he had planned was to be a date. Yet, Claire, in all her adolescent glory, only had to spare one look for Dean before calling out a very bored, “Caaaaas! Your man-wife has arrived!”

From two strangers mistaken for a couple to two people on their first date mistaken for a married couple, maybe it was just how it was meant to be.

**Author's Note:**

> [rebloggable on tumblr ♥](http://elsalapizza.tumblr.com/post/180827501270/fic-count-the-stars-inside-your-mind)


End file.
